Infants, especially newborn infants, generally have problems with sleeping. The infant must learn during the first year of life how to self-sooth and calm down to allow sleep to come naturally. Much to the chagrin of parents and caregivers, infants require intervention and outside help from sleep-deprived adults to settle down to sleep.
Infants during the first year are also vulnerable to crib death or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Generally, these tragic deaths occur without anticipation or explanation. Most often, these incidents occur at night while the parents are sleeping. It has been suspected that accidental suffocation plays a role, but it has never been confirmed as the sole causation.
Many recommendations have been made based on statistical analysis of what is most commonly found in SIDS cases. Experts tell parents to place the child in a “naked” crib; that is, they advise against using pillows, blankets, sleep positioners, bumper pads, stuffed animals, toys, or any fluffy bedding in the crib and recommend instead dressing the child warmly.
Following the “naked” crib policy means that when an infant wakes up during the night and is not hungry or uncomfortable, there is nothing available in the crib to comfort and calm the infant back to sleep. Babies and small children traditionally have used comfort objects, such as blankets, toys and stuffed animals, often referred to as a lovey, banky or blanky. In the “naked” crib, the baby has nothing to grab onto for comfort and soothing. Without any comfort object, the infant takes longer to settle back down, often waking the parent to intervene by providing rocking and other soothing actions.
Many have realized the value of having a toy or object for an infant to grab during awake periods and some have proposed adding tags or tassels to toys or clothing for the amusement of the infant. These tags and tassels are intended to stimulate rather than comfort the infant. Others have proposed blankets that selectively attach to the infant or that are filled with a substance that invokes a memory of amniotic fluid. None of these are available to the infant in the “naked” crib.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present disclosure as disclosed hereafter.
In the present disclosure, where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which the present disclosure is concerned.
While certain aspects of conventional techniques have been discussed to facilitate the present disclosure, no aspects are disclaimed and it is contemplated that the claims may encompass one or more of the conventional aspects discussed herein.